


Pater Familias

by Wrench_Wench



Series: Fics from Wrench_Wench's Tumblr [16]
Category: Batman (Comics), DCU (Comics)
Genre: Cross-Posted on Tumblr, Dad!Jason, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-06
Updated: 2018-12-09
Packaged: 2019-09-12 21:49:07
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 3,265
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16879845
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Wrench_Wench/pseuds/Wrench_Wench
Summary: Jason decides that instead of trying to be a better Batman than Bruce, he will succeed where Jason thinks Bruce failed the worst: being a father. This starts shortly after the events of “Under the Hood”.-Posted on tumblr in 2011, before the New 52.





	1. Chapter 1

Pater Familias

The Red Hood snarled beneath his helmet. There was no way he was letting one of those scumbags escape. The vigilante had just busted an outpost of human trafficking ring. He’d already taken out most of the bastards involved, but one of them had run out the backdoor when the Red Hood was trying to calm down some of the panicked girls. After ordering one of the women to call the cops, Jason Todd began his pursuit.

The traffickers had believed that they would escape notice if they set up their brothel in the suburbs, so the Red Hood was dealing with different terrain than he was used to. Instead of hopping rooftops he was hopping picket fences, and the vigilante nearly slipped on dew slicked grass more than once. For all that most Gothamites complained about the dark alleys downtown, the suburbs had almost no streetlights. Luckily for the Red Hood, a few of the more cautious residents had installed motion activated security lights in their yards, so he could keep track of his quarry’s progress.

A smile nearly made it’s way to his face when the Red Hood realized that he was gaining on his mark. The pimp sped around a corner two hundred meters ahead of his pursuer. Moments after the man was out of sight two gunshots shattered the suburban quiet. The Red Hood pushed himself to run faster upon hearing the shots, and rounded the corner in moments. The sight that met him angered the murderous vigilante beyond reason.

The desperate crook had come across a middle aged couple leaving their car, and had decided to commandeer the vehicle. The panicking fugitive shot both suburbanites. The Red Hood caught up to his prey as the man was riffling through his victims’ blood soaked pockets for their car keys. Assisted by his forward momentum, the pistol whip that the Red Hood delivered sent the would-be-carjacker flying.

The Red Hood’s victorious swagger towards his prone adversary stopped short when the near silence of the street was disturbed by the cries coming from the backseat of the car.

Looking through the back window, Jason was able to see a toddler strapped into an absurdly colorful car seat. Fury at both the man on the pavement and himself filled the former Robin. The Red Hood stalked towards the now cowering pimp with a growl.

“On your knees, filth.”

The man blubbered as he tried to crawl away from his masked attacker. The Red Hood would have none of that, so he grabbed his prey by the shoulders and yanked him forward. “I said: on your knees.”

The cries from the sedan grew louder, egging the vigilante on. The Red Hood forced the quivering man into a kneeling position and yanked his head up to look at him.

“You have two choices here: either you put a bullet through your head, or I make it look like you did.” With that, the Red Hood knelt down and placed the nozzle of his gun beneath the man’s chin. The pimp continued to whimper and tremble, unable to form a coherent sentence. With a frustrated growl the enraged vigilante pulled the trigger. The Red Hood had already turned away from his victim before the body hit the ground. Absently, he kicked the perp’s firearm closer to the freshest corpse.

Jason holstered his gun and stepped closer to the parked sedan. The child’s cries hadn’t lessened at all, and Jason felt a rush of guilt well up inside him. This was his fault; this kid’s parents would still be alive if the Red Hood hadn’t run after their killer.

Feeling the sudden need to know who these poor people were, Jason knelt down next to the man’s body and pulled his wallet from his back pocket. Digging out the dead man’s driver’s license, Jay discover that he had been Jack Kelley. Judging by the miniature wedding photo stuffed in the billfold, the woman with her neck shot out had been his wife. Jason returned the wallet to where he found it with an aggravated sigh and moved to the car door closest to the crying child.

When Jason opened the door the kid paused in its cries, took one look at the Red Hood’s gleaming helmet, and began screaming even louder. For his part, Jason jumped at the renewed cries, slamming his head against the car’s ceiling, and cursed. With some frustration, the young man pulled off his helmet and tossed it aside. Presenting a somewhat less frightening image, Jason leaned in close enough to unstrap the child.

“Hey kiddo, calm down. I ain’t gonna hurt ya. I promise.” Working to make his voice sound as soothing as possible, Jason picked up the crying toddler and proceeded to rock it gently. “C'mon kid, it’s safe now. I took care of the bad guy.”

The child slowly quieted down, and Jason took a moment to study her. It at least seemed to be a her, since she was dressed in a little pink pinafore dress. She couldn’t have been more than two years old. In the sedan’s dim cabin light, the girl’s hair looked strawberry blond and her teary blue eyes seemed impossibly huge. Though he didn’t realize it at the time, Jason was instantly smitten.

“Hey sweetheart, what’s your name, huh?” The leather clad vigilante cooed at the tiny bundle in his arms. When girl opened her mouth only to start crying again, Jason panicked for a moment. “Hey, it’s cool. You don’t have to tell me! Just stop crying, please?”

Had any of the Red Hood’s numerous enemies seen him at this moment, they would likely be shocked into inaction by the image of the fearsome anti-hero fretting over a small child. Jason wasn’t thinking of any of that though; he just wanted the kid to stop crying so much. Scouring the car’s interior for anything that could distract his charge, the young man found a teddy bear on the floor next to a crumpled purple blanket. As he reached for the stuffed animal, Jason noticed the embroidery on the blanket. Carefully stitched in white thread was the name Caroline Kelley.

When Jason wrapped little Caroline in the blanket and handed her the stuffed toy, she instantly calmed. Knowing that the police could arrive at any moment, Jason moved to place the girl back in her seat. His actions were thwarted by the girl’s refusal to give up the grip she had on Jason’s jacket. When he tried to pry the tiny fingers away from the leather, Caroline’s lower lip began to tremble in what Jason realized was the onset of another flood of tears.

If Jason was honest with himself, he would admit that he was as reluctant to let go of the girl as she was of being let go. Glancing at the three bodies on the pavement, Jason briefly wondered about what would happen to Caroline. Remembering his own stint in Gotham’s foster care, he doubted that it would be pleasant. Given the things he’d discovered about the most recent Robins, Jason doubted that Bruce Wayne would be swooping in to rescue this girl from a life of misery.

With a sudden flash of inspiration, Jason adjusted his grip on the toddler and fished a cell phone out of his coat pocket. After dialing the number that he’d carefully memorized, the soon-to-be- _former_ -Red Hood put the mobile up to his ear.

“Hello, Talia? It’s Jason. I need a favor.”


	2. Avus Paternus

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Here is part two of my fic where Jason Todd adopts Carrie Kelley and decides to become The Greatest and Most Attractive Dad Ever ™. Now with 100% more Alfred.

Pater Familias: Avus Paternus

Jason pushed the diner’s swinging door open with his shoulder. His hands were otherwise occupied with a drowsy toddler. The young father searched the booths for the man he was meeting here.

It didn’t surprise him to see his guest already seated; he was never anything less than perfectly punctual, while Jason had to convince a rambunctious two-year-old to put her shoes on before he could go anywhere. As Jason made his way towards the table, he could tell the exact moment that the man noticed Jason’s strawberry-blonde companion.

“When you said that you wished to meet with me, this was not amongst my expectations. Tell me, however did you manage to father a child when you weren’t among the living?”

Jason snorted, then offered a hesitant smile. “It’s nice to see you too, Alfred.”

Alfred Pennyworth returned his young companion’s smile before continuing. “As you requested, Master Bruce does not know of this meeting, nor shall I tell him. But now, I must demand some answers, Master Jason. Who is this child, and where did she come from?”

Jason slid into his seat with a nervous wince; Alfred’s tone of disapproval was enough to make a grown man squirm. “Alfred, this is Caroline. Carrie, this is your Grandpa Alfred. Say hello.”

The little girl offered a shy smile before tucking herself against Jason’s side. It would take a heart of stone not to be charmed by the child, dressed as she was in a bright yellow dress and with he hair gleaming in the morning sun. The elderly Englishman smiled kindly at her before giving her guardian a demanding stare.

“Her parents were killed by one of the crooks I was chasing. I took her in.”

“Are the police aware of the situation?”

“Everything’s taken care of. All the adoption paperwork has been filed.”

Their rather tense conversation was interrupted by the arrival of their server. After placing their orders – Alfred merely drinking coffee, while Jason ordered a hearty breakfast to split with his daughter. Once they were alone again, the two men returned to their previous conversation.

“However did you manage that?”

Jason answered with some reluctance, “Talia.”

“Do you think it wise to be involved with Ms. Al Ghul?”

“She’s the one who helped me when I came back. We have an understanding; she does me a favor, I pay her back. She doesn’t pretend to  _care_ , or make promises that she won’t follow through with.”

“If that is the case, why did you wish to speak with me?”

“I don’t want to be too deep in Talia’s debt, and there are some things I don’t trust her with. The fact is, I need you to promise me something.”

“And what might that be, Master Jason?”

“If anything happens to me, I want you to take care of Carrie for me. I can’t think of anyone better.”

Alfred tried not to show how touched he was by this request, and deflected it. “As I recall, Master Jason, you are involved in some rather dangerous business. Doesn’t that greatly increase the likelihood of ‘something happening’ to you?”

“I gave that up.”

Jason’s blunt response brought the old butler up short. “Pardon?”

“I quit. My dad got himself killed by being a crook, I got  _myself_ and  _Carrie’s parents_  killed by fighting crooks. I just… I want her to grow up safe. I want to be a good dad. And I’m working hard at it.” Jason set his jaw and glared at the man in front of him, looking like someone with something to prove. “We don’t have a lot, but I’m doing what I can to make things better. I’m working at an auto shop during the day, and going to community college in the evenings. Carrie spends a lot of time at the college’s daycare, but she says she likes it. I’m already trying to figure out where we can move so that she can go to a good school. But we can’t afford a good neighborhood right now, so I need you to promise to take care of Carrie if anything happens.”

Alfred reached across the table and patted one of Jason’s clenched fists. “Master Jason, you neither dress in a costume to fight crime, nor do you encourage your child to do the same. I would say that you are already a much better father than certain others I could name.”

The moment was broken by the arrival of their food. The rest of breakfast was spent with Jason detailing the ups and downs of his new fatherhood – how it seemed that Carrie couldn’t walk through the apartment without finding a sharp edge to hurt herself with, how she like to draw unidentifiable figures (and rainbows) during daycare and describe them to Jason in detail at home, how they both had nightmares that woke them at night, how Jason wanted to buy his daughter everything, but could afford almost nothing. While the grown ups talked, Carrie made sure to get as much food on her dress as she got into her stomach.

 


	3. Night Terrors

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason may not be a superhero any more, but he still fights monsters.

Pater Familias: Night Terrors

 

Carrie slept next to Jason on his single bed at first, until one of Jason’s nightmares resulted in him accidentally kicking the toddler off the mattress. When her cries woke him, Jason’s fear quickly morphed into self-loathing. The next morning, the newly-minted father bought the only crib he could afford.

The change in sleeping arrangements didn’t change the pair’s sleeping habits. If Jason wasn’t woken up by his own nightmares, he was woken by Carrie’s. At first it hadn’t bothered Jason, but as the months went by he became more and more worried. He didn’t think it was normal for a toddler to have chronic nightmares, but there didn’t seem to be anything Jason could do. Carrie was almost never coherent enough to give him details about what upset her. It sometimes took hours to calm Carrie down, which left both of them cranky and exhausted in the morning.

In sheer desperation, one night Jason tried singing to his young charge. Despite the facts that Jason’s voice was rough from smoking, that he could barely carry a tune, and he was hardly singing a traditional lullaby, Carrie immediately quieted down. The suddenness of Carrie’s change in demeanor startled her father into silence. This, in turn, caused the toddler to become distressed once more.

“Sweetheart, what is it?”

“Music scares monsters.”

Jason had no idea where Carrie had come by such an idea, but he was perfectly happy to buy into anything that helped her calm down. Searching his brain momentarily for the rest of the lyrics, Jason began singing the second verse of what would eventually become Carrie’s favorite lullaby.

“Look at the night,

And it don’t seem so lonely,

We fill it up with only two.

And when I hurt,

Hurtin’ runs off my shoulders.

How can I hurt when holding you?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Original tumblr tag: #HIGH FIVES ON THE ASTRAL PLANE TO ANYONE WHO FIGURES OUT THE SONG JASON SINGS


	4. A Death in the Family

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Jason faces the fallout of Final Crisis

 

Pater Familias: A Death in the Family

 

Jason wasn’t exactly involved with the “cape and cowl” crowd anymore. After Carrie came into his life, Jason’s sole concern had been the safety of his little girl. The high mortality rate amongst the friends and family of those involved in crimefighting had all but guaranteed he leave that part of his life behind. As a consequence, Jason’s only source of insider information was the weekly Sunday brunch Alfred had with Jason and Carrie. This was how he heard about Donna Troy and Kyle Rayner disappearing for several weeks on a cross-dimensional quest, and about the circumstances of Black Lightning’s arrest.

For the first time ever, Alfred was late. Jason tried not to let Carrie see how disturbed he was by this, and tried to be very interested in the purple monkey the little girl was coloring on the children’s menu. Carrie was halfway through describing to her father the grand adventures that the technicolored animals had been on, and the deep philosophical meaning of said adventures, when Alfred arrived.

“An’ Mister Blue is blue a'cause he’s always happy an’ he likes to play tricks on people.”

“But I thought people who are sad are blue?”

“I know, that’s why Mister Blue is blue. He’s playin’ a trick.”

“Master Jason, it’s best not to argue with the faultless logic of a preschooler.” To most people, Alfred appeared immaculately groomed. To Jason, he looked utterly haggard. It was obvious from the first glance that something was wrong. Jason was certain that whatever was bothering Alfred was related to the international meta crisis that took place a few weeks before. Though few details had been released to the public, it had caused Alfred to cancel their brunch meeting twice, so it was obviously worse than the typical crisis.

Or it might have something to do with the oddly spiking crime rates in Gotham. It could be a combination of the two – maybe Bruce was recovering from injuries he received during the showdown with Darkseid? Not that Jason really cared, so long as it didn’t impact Carrie.

“Hey Alfred, what’s up?”

“Master Jason, I need to tell you something. It will not be pleasant.”

—

For the first time in nearly a year, Jason was holding a shiny red helmet in his hands. He had just put Carrie to bed, and was seated in the living room, staring at his reflection on the helmet’s surface. His face appeared distorted, and the entire image was tinged the color of blood. It made Jason sick to look at it. It would be so easy to put the damn thing on. The guns in the apartment were in good condition, and he was sure that his safe house stashes were still secure; he could easily pick up where he left off. He wouldn’t even face any decent opposition, because Bruce was dead.

Bruce was dead.

Bruce was dead and Golden Boy Grayson and the replacement were letting Gotham go to shit. Didn’t they get that the only way to quell the scum of this city was through fear? And they didn’t fear Nightwing, Robin, Batgirl, or any of the other rabble Grayson had called in. They feared Batman.

But they also feared the Red Hood. They knew  _exactly_  what the Red Hood would do to them. Even if he’d been gone from the scene for a while, it wouldn’t take all that much to re-establish his reputation. It would be almost as easy as putting that helmet back on.

Jason lifted the shining red helmet up.

Carrie shifted restlessly in her crib, causing the wood to creak slightly.

The helmet dropped to the floor with a solid ‘thump’.

He couldn’t do it. He couldn’t justify endangering his little girl like that. How could he leave her alone like that? Risking his life constantly by fighting dangerous outlaws when Carrie had already lost one set of parents? Would it matter that Jason had cleaned the streets of criminals if one of them followed him home and hurt his baby?

Bruce was dead. Jason had never been able to imagine a world where Bruce wasn’t alive. Not really. Even when he wanted the man dead, he could never picture the aftermath. As much as  _that_ hurt, and Jason hated to admit how much Bruce’s death hurt him, he knew that it would be much worse should something happen to Carrie. Jason would rather be dead himself, even if it meant that Carrie was all alone in the world.

Had Bruce ever felt this way about Jason? Had he even cared at all? Since Jason’s return they’d been at odds, and now Bruce was dead, so he’d never know. Bruce never knew about Carrie either, he'd bet. What would he have thought about them? Jason would never know that either. Jason would never know a lot of things about Bruce, and Carrie would know less, because Bruce was dead.

Later, when Jason packed the shiny red helmet away once more, he pretended not to notice the slick wet spots on it, or the streaks of dried salt.

 


End file.
